Case review on how to destroy a company... CGM and Out of Touch Foreign Executives
Pros
The Employees!!! While every company has its share of bad apples (lazy, unqualified, etc.), the majority of CGM's employees are really good people. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to work with such good people. Unfortunately, many of them are already gone. They were either let go during one of the many restructurings/layoffs, or they moved on to better places.
Cons
I want to start off by saying that many of the bad reviews previously posted on Glassdoor are understatements. The current CEO (Norbert Fischl) was so upset by these reviews that he has “encouraged” staff numerous times to write positive reviews to counter the negative ones. There were also rumors that the CEO personally wrote one of the few positive reviews as well as asking in-house counsel to sue Glassdoor for slander. While I’m not positive on whether these actually happened, there is one positive review that is obviously written by a foreigner who writes/sounds very similar to the CEO. For me, this casts a serious shadow on the accuracy of the few positive reviews. I can’t stress this enough - Anyone who is considering accepting a job with CGM should know that the negative reviews are FAR more accurate that the positive ones. Below are examples of some of the most egregious decisions made by the CEO & COO (Kent Brostrom): • Refusal to pay employees previously agreed compensation – Senior managers were denied their bonuses, even though they were part of their agreed upon compensation. CEO & COO refused to even set bonus targets for management so there was no way to meet the targets. CEO & COO also refused to pay normal employees merit/COL increases after the employees were told that they would receive them. • Refusal to acknowledge work/life balance – Employee personal lives & wellbeing are so blatantly disregarded that sleeping on the floor of the office is accepted/encouraged. Vacation/PTO time is not honored. Employees are still expected to work while on PTO. I was personally “asked” to attend a meeting at midnight on a Sunday, while I was on vacation. • Environment of manufactured stress – Unrealistic deadlines are the norm. Everything, no matter how trivial, is needed “on short notice”, or “still today” regardless of day/time (11pm Friday, 5am Sunday, etc.). The best part is that everyone would kill themselves to fulfill the request during the unreasonable timeline, when the executives wouldn’t even review it for days after it was provided. • Misleading (maybe untruthful) statements told to customers & employees – CEO & COO would constantly say how great the company is doing. Even though the smart/good employees were all looking for new jobs and customers were terminating left and right. Decisions were explained in a way that, while probably not illegal, were definitely morally questionable\wrong. There were a few occasions that I felt like a sleazy used car salesman when trying to convince clients to stay or explain to employees the latest terrible decision made by the COO/CEO. I could go on and on, but I think this is enough for any rational person reading this to get the picture. CGM is not a company that is employee or client focused. The current executive team (CEO & COO) have little respect for their employees/clients. That coupled with their amazing propensity for poor decision making, I can honestly say that I will be surprised if CGM US doesn’t go out of business in the near future.
